The Legend of the Fall 2025

​Glad to have run this race. Had to walk in several of the hills in Hickory park. Jeff Whetstine best me in my age group. He told me he has qualified for Boston with a time of 3:45. That’s amazing. Did not get a pie this year. Let’s see if next year I can run better! 

I’m thrilled to have completed this race. I had to walk through several of the hills in Hickory Park. Jeff Whetstine beat me in my age group. He informed me that he has qualified for Boston with a time of 3:45. That’s incredible! Unfortunately, I didn’t get a pie this year. Let’s hope I can improve my performance next year! 

 

Sophia High School Graduation

 Sophia finished High School! Time flies. She had four awesome years of track. Her PR in the 100m Hurdles was about 14.93. She finally broke the fifteen seconds. She competed at Drake Realys and State Championship in Des Moines. I always enjoyed watching her racing. 

Sophia is practicing Track & Field

Sophia is now a freshman in High School. Although she quit gymnastics a few years ago, she continues to exercise and this time she is doing Track. She ran 30.75 sec in 200 m. That is an awesome time. Although there are girls who can run 200 m in 28 sec, 30 seconds is still pretty good. I hope she understands that.

The best thing, is that there is room for improvement. She needs to believe she can do it. I know she can!

Sophia the Gymnast

Sophia has been practicing gymnastics for several years now. But, not sure if she is getting tired, or maybe she wants to explore other activities. She says she wants to do cross country and track in Junior High School. Her school asked for a picture of her to include in the sixth grade album. I made a collection of some of her photos and I'd like to do a video with the pictures. 

Gotcha Day #7

I am so glad to have Sophia as my daughter. Today, we celebrate seven years of Sophia being with us. She is growing up and becoming a wonderful girl. Today, we started learning countries and capitals in Central and South America. There were ten countries I did not know their capital. She asked me to make a list of them and memorize them!  She is the one who challenges me to learn something everyday. Shouldn't be the opposite?

November 29, 2014

I enjoy watching Sophia practicing gymnastics, and also the other young girls. She loves practicing and I can't wait to see her doing more advanced stuff.
Here's a couple of videos of this morning practice:
 Video-A
 Video-B
We go for lunch after her practice. She eats so slow...  I guess that's not a bad thing.

Especially for You 5K

Sophia cannot wait to start running races. She was frustrated this morning knowing that we were not allowing her to run with mom. I'd wished my foot was healed and I could run with my kiddos.

Ready for summer vacation

Sophia is very excited to go to Cozumel. She wants to swim all day and snorkel in the ocean. She likes to kayak in the Iowa lakes. Here she is at Kent park's lake, ready to go kayaking. She is having a wonderful summer.

Coralville Performing Arts Borlaug Elementary School Jan 2014

Sophia and I read some of her book "Goofballs" this morning. She is a pretty good reader for her age. Had dinner last night at Exotic India and she ate all her food.

Here's a video of Sophia first performance at Coralville Arts Performance Center. First grade.

Sandos-Caracol

We just returned from our spring-break vacation at Riviera Maya. Sophia spent a lot of time improving her swimming skills. She can now swim from one side of the pool to the other side! She also likes to dive into the deep water. She is starting to read short books and memorize bible verses.

Sophia is Five Years old!

Sophia celebrated her birthday with a wonderful ice-cream cake and lots of friends! She received many gifts, but the one she liked the most was stuff to make a Fairy Garden!
Sophia is doing great in gymnastics and also has passed her PS-III swimming course.  She is so good that she will be skipping Level-1.

Borlaug Elementary School

Today, we visited Sophia's new school, Borlaug Elementary. She is excited to start kindergarten in August. She is a very smart girl.  She is taking swimming lesson and she is in Level PS-II. She is going to swim like a fish!

Lego Truck

Karen got a Lego truck for Sophia.  I only showed her the instructions, and she was finding the pieces and putting them together.  She finished it and we took a nice picture. This girl is amazing.  I should get a small Lego toy for Assen and help him put it together the same way I did with Sophia.

A new year!

Sophia is now four years young.  She is doing gymnastics at Synergy Gymnastics in North Liberty. She loves doing exercise. She is very independent and wants to learn as much as she can. She loves playing with dad's iPod. She likes to sing along and do Spanish in the iPod.

Happy Birthday mom!

Sophia celebrated her mom's birthday! Sophia weighs now 28 pounds. She is getting some weight, but we don't know where she is putting it. Sophia's best frien at daycare is Jacob. He is a sweet little boy.

Happy Birthday!!!

Sophia is now three years old. We went swimming today. She enjoyed the water a lot. Then, we came home and continued swimming. Sophia is now trying to swim! no swim vest! She got a baking oven for her birthday and baked a cake for us. She is not a bad cook!

dancing class

Sophia went to her first dancing class today. Small children danced to children's music played by this nice lady. They all sang several songs and enjoyed it very much. Sophia sang a few songs in the car on our way back home. It seems like she got some inspiration to sing!

New Bed for Sophia

They brought her new bed in today. It has a "Dora the explorer" bed cover and blankets. It will be her first night in her new bed. What does that mean? more independence! Now, she can get up if she wants to!

Christmas Holiday

Sophia got to meet all her American cousins. She is now talking and can tell us if she is happy or if something is bothering her. It is so much fun to see her learning to talk. She is a real acrobat and loves to run and dance. We already signed her up for dancing classes.

Moon Festival

Enjoyed the Moon Festival in Marion/Cedar Rapids. Had dinner at China King. Had fun making new friends. Everyone was very friendly.